Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Catching up with: Jane McGonigal, 2008 CFM Lecturer

This the first in a series of updates on various interesting folk you have been introduced to through CFM lectures or our the "artists interpreting the future of museums" installations at the AAM annual meeting.

The fabulous talk Dr. Jane McGonigal gave in December 2008 on
“Gaming is the Future of Museums” was the first public event for CFM, and it
was a wild success. (You can watch an excerpt from the lecture here.) Jane went on to publish “Reality is Broken,” arguing that gaming can be harnessed to
do good in the real world. She has also created a series of games that demonstrate this
thesis, including:

·Cryptozoo
for the American Heart Association, which inspires people to get out and move
by challenging them to research and imitate fictional animals. This game is
part of a trend of using games for
health including the popular Wii Fit.

·Evoke, developed for the World
Bank, which recruited young adults in Africa to solve global problems. Nearly
20,000 people from 150 countries participated. A handful of the game’s best
innovators were selected to be mentored by business leaders and experienced social
innovators and given seed funding to further develop their concepts.

·Just last year Jane created Find the
Future for the New York Public Library (“the first game in the world in
which winning means writing a book”). It launched with a one-time, overnight
adventure in the Library’s Schwarzman building in May 2011, before segueing to
an on-going online game. Here’s a
great video, under 8 minutes, documenting the joyful chaos of 500 people locked
in the library overnight with a giant plush lion mascot.

These accomplishments came in the face of great challenges. In 2009 Jane suffered a concussion when she stood up into a cabinet
door, and she was in the unlucky minority of people whose
concussions do not resolve quickly. She struggled through over a year of
dizziness, migraines, inability to concentrate, fatigue and depression.

In this recent talk for TED, Jane speaks eloquently of her injury, her recovery, SuperBetter and (not
incidentally) how gaming can improve our quality of life. I recommend you watch! Jane promises it will add 7 minutes to your life…